Mysterious ‘ghost ships’ filled with decaying bodies found drifting in Japanese waters

Almost a dozen wooden “ghost ships”, filled with decomposing corpses, have been found floating in Japanese waters over the past two months, in a nautical riddle that’s left Coast Guard officials scratching their heads.

One of the 11 “ghost ships” found floating off Japan

The remains of 25 people have been found aboard 11 wooden boats that have washed up on the coast of northern Japan in the last two months.

Several of the dilapidated vessels bore Korean characters and Japanese police believe the victims were either fishermen unable to return to their ports in North Korea or defectors attempting to escape the repressive regime.

An alternative suggestion is that the vessels were fishing boats that were not able to return to their home ports in North Korea, perhaps after experiencing engine malfunctions or poor weather, and their crews died at sea.

In a grisly twist, two of the bodies were found without heads, while one craft contained six skulls.

CW Staff

In the late 80s I started investigating UFOs and crop circles and joined the CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle Studies) and a local group researching strange sightings and reports along the south coast of Dorset (UK). In the early ’90s I started my own research group called SPS (Strange Phenomena Studies), this was renamed in 2004 to Cryptoworld.